"It seems almost unthinkable
that any man could descend so low as to plan such a diabolical thing,
and then try as best he could to throw it on the shoulders of an
innocent lad. If it turns out to be true nothing could be too severe a
punishment for that rascal!"
"Then you don't blame me for thinking such a thing, sir? I was afraid
you might laugh at me, or even worse, accuse me of inventing something
that could never have happened. Oh! if you could only have seen the look
on his face as he stood there buttoning his coat up, you would never
forget it. I have dreamed of him every night since, and always with that
terrible look in his eyes. But, Mr. Winslow, could a man do such a
thing? I never heard of any one robbing himself before."
"Ah! you have a good deal to learn yet, my boy. It would not be the
first time a clever and unscrupulous rascal laid a plan to have it
appear as though he had been robbed, so that he could profit from the
consequences. Mr. Graylock is in a bad box. His creditors are pushing
him hard, and I think that to-morrow his house will be in the hands of
the courts. He declares that he was holding those securities to prop up
his business at the last hour; but Mr. Goodwyn has admitted to me that
they would have been only a drop in the bucket; that the failure was
bound to come. Now you can see what object he would have in taking the
papers after they had been examined by the cashier; and in getting his
envelope hurriedly in the vault without its being looked into again.
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